Perspectives on the beautiful game of soccer; fueled by enormous amounts of coffee

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

USWNT-North Korea rb

Anthems away, anthems away - Korea's is rather somber. Heck their fans look deadly serious as well. Not much like the happy, charismatic South Korean fans in 2002.

1 - North Korea with an early shot. They came to play.

Chalupny charging forward, but NK shields her out for a goal kick.

3 - Carli hung on to that ball too long - eek, JP is reading my mind, or it was pretty obvious.5- Solo out to claim the ball in the box.

6 - Chalupny almost pokes one in going the other way.

7- Pretty easy catch for Solo, but at least NK is creating chances. It's a rainy day. Anything can happen.

9- North Korea has a player down, but they keep attacking. The shot that gets off is weak, though.

12 - The U.S. looks a bit discombobulated, actually. Other than Chalupny's one charge, no real chances. Free kick for the U.S. goes over the top. Everything is a little off for them right now. They need to work through this quickly.

15 - There hasn't been any real run of good possession for the U.S. either. They're hoofing it downfield a bit too fast.

17 - Abby with a nice pass to Lilly - but it's amazing how NK has kept so much possession with a man down. Missed opportunity for the U.S.

19 - Finally, a decent run of play from the U.S. O'Reilly does well in the box, but then goes for the obvious shot - might have laid a pass off instead.

21 - The U.S. is scrapping with more success. Ho Sun Hui is out, Kim Yong Ae in - the U.S. nearly scores on a free kick.

23 - Lopez send in a nice corner, but Abby doesn't really get good wood on it.

24 - The rain is exposing how Lilly has lost a step. It cancels out somewhat her superiority on the technical side. She's not beating people to 50-50 balls.

26 - NK cracking shots from outside - that one didn't miss by much. They've carried the play in this game - something that the announcers seem to have missed.

28 - CK for the U.S. Lopez to take - eventually leads to a goal kick.

30 - NK is being smart, they keep sending in shots to Solo - the last one slipped off her fingers. the next one could go in. The U.S. isn't closing players down on defense very well.

32 - Lloyd with a nice run - the U.S. has shown flashes, but no cohesion.